Frankenstein and Conrads Heart of Darkness - Literature review Example

The Art of Darkness (Proposal) Introduction Darkness. It is a concept we don’t even question, something that becomes a part of our inner psyche before we’re even old enough to consider the source. It is more than just the simple absence of light but is instead imbued with a myriad of meanings brought to us through the medium of mythology. Mythology is often thought of as being something that was made up a very long time ago by people called the Greeks or the Romans and then passed on through generations to become bedtime stories for young children today. However, a literal translation of the word myth, as Frye discusses it in his essay, refers simply to a special kind of narrative.1 The special nature of this narrative is that it is devised to reflect the beliefs of a particular culture, especially as they use the concept of the supernatural to explore and explain natural events and the essence of human nature. Frye’s argument is that this narrative is included in almost all of the archetypes used in our literature and that these attempts are also found within our most sacred ritual events as we continue to seek the true nature of the order of life. Considering Northrop Frye’s discussion of myth, ritual and the natural cycle as it is presented in “The Archetypes of Literature,” it can be seen that there are several rituals and beliefs that we experience in modern life that we are perhaps not even aware of as being a voluntary affirmation of the natural order of life, such as the beliefs we associate with the concept of darkness. Much of what we know about the classical Romans and Greeks has been preserved for our attention through the myths and stories they created. Although many of these stories were passed down in oral storytelling fashion through the various generations, the way in which these stories were told captured many of the ideals and beliefs of the people who told them as well as the people who listened to them. Myth has been defined as an “applied narrative … a primary verbalization of supra-individual concerns and of matters of collective importance in real life.”2 With a tendency to illustrate stories in terms of black and white, good and evil, exemplary and deplorable, myths manage to capture the basic ideologies of a given culture and paint a picture of what everyday life might have been like within that culture. The way in which the myths changed over time reflect changes in the ideologies of the people telling the stories, editing and changing to suit new or emerging concepts as a result of trade, enlightenment or other factors. One thing that tends to resist changes in definition, however, is the concept of darkness, despite the valiant attempts by numerous authors including Mary Shelley in her novel Frankenstein and Joseph Conrad in his novel Heart of Darkness. Both of these authors try to redefine the traditional concept of darkness as a force of evil and negative energy. In our fairytales and legends, it is always the dark man or the darkness that hides what we cannot fathom and fear to face. The absence of light is seen as a literal absence of the Light of God and therefore must be the dwelling place of all evil. To turn to the darkness is to turn one’s back on goodness and honor and to embrace the devil and his mischievous ways. Yet both Shelley and Conrad work to demonstrate that it is only when we face this darkness and seek to discover what it has to hide that we can finally attain true enlightenment. Shelley does this by illustrating that only when her main character, Dr. Victor Frankenstein, confronts the darkness in his own soul is he finally able to understand the nature of the monster he’s created. Conrad takes his readers on a mysterious journey up the Congo into the deepest, darkest parts of the newly colonized jungles of Africa searching for a man who seems as ephemeral as mist. Here, too, it is in the confrontation of darkness that true light is applied. This paradoxical understanding of the concept of darkness will be explored through an examination of the literature regarding traditional understandings of darkness and applying them to Shelley’s Frankenstein and Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Study Statement The purpose of this study is to examine what the traditional roles of darkness have been as it is recognized in archetypal imagery and through its presentation in classic stories and fairy tales. This will be compared with the concept as it is presented by Mary Shelley and Joseph Conrad. Neither of these authors attempts to reduce the fearful quality of darkness or its possibly disastrous ramifications, but both strive to illustrate how facing the darkness and learning what it contains is the only true means of attaining the enlightenment so many seek in vain to find. To fully understand how this fits together, an understanding of archetypes and how they are disseminated is necessary as well as an understanding of what is meant by ‘enlightenment’. With these understandings firmly in place, it is possible to examine how Shelley uses darkness in her novel to illustrate the various ways in which both beauty and ugliness can hide on a physical, intellectual and emotional level. It is also possible to examine darkness in Conrad’s novel on a physical, intellectual and emotional level. Through these examinations, it will be shown that it was only because of the characters’ necessity to face the darkness, whether forced or voluntary, that they are able to see clearly into the depths of their own souls and know real enlightenment. Literature Review The concept of the myth is intrinsically linked to the concept of the archetype, which has grown out of Carl Jung’s theories regarding the collective unconscious. The collective unconscious is “the reservoir of our experiences as a species, a kind of knowledge we are all born with. And yet we can never be directly conscious of it. It influences all of our experiences and behaviors, most especially the emotional ones, but we only know about it indirectly, by looking at those influences.”3 One of the ways in which Jung felt that the collective unconscious was made available to us was through the use of archetypes. “Various archetypes are represented within myths, fairy tales, and religions, as well as dreams.”4 An archetype is described as an “unlearned tendency to experience things in a certain way”5 and Jung identified several, such as the mother, mana (or spiritual power), the shadow (or the unknown) and the persona (or public mask). It is, of course, the shadow archetype with which we deal when we consider our understanding of the concept of ‘darkness’. It is easy to see how the archetype developed as early humans learned to fear the darkness beyond the mouth of the cave in which any number of creatures might be hiding, just waiting for a chance to steal away the winter’s food, a small child or even the entire family. This is a natural aspect of our survival instinct and continues to be seen in the fear of every young child of the monster they’ve seen in the closet that, in the bright light brought in by parents, is revealed to be little more than a pile of blankets topped by a favorite stuffed animal. As children grow older, they are exposed to fairy tales and, in recent years, Hollywood movies that make clear distinctions between the bad ‘shadow’ character and the shining hero. Perhaps the most acknowledged example of this concept can be found in Westerns, where the hero is always identified by the cowboy in white while the villain is always dressed in black. Thus, the relationship between the idea of darkness and the notion of evil becomes more clearly defined. These ideas are solidified further even into the modern day as real live people are discovered committing unimaginable crimes that most would consider ‘evil’. “The perpetrators of such acts apparently become the embodiment of this archetype either in a momentary act or a more general state.”6 By making this connection, we can make ourselves feel more comfortable because we can project our concepts of darkness within ourselves onto these ‘evil’ individuals and then lock them up, throw away the key and forget they ever existed. Unfortunately, the flashes of darkness within ourselves are not so easily banished. Whether we choose to admit it or not, as we grow older and learn the taboos of our society, we begin to have flashes of darkness within our own souls – an instinctual desire to shake an annoyingly loud child, a murderous rage that remains barely controlled. “Our shadow may appear in dreams, hallucinations and musings, often as something or someone who is bad, fearsome or despicable in some way. It may seduce through false friendship or threaten with callous disregard. Encounters with it, as an aspect of the subconscious, may reveal deeper thoughts and fears. It may also take over direct physical action when the person is confused, dazed or drugged.”7 Even though no action is taken during these flashes, the knowledge that they could have and the fact that they exist within us becomes frightening. The idea that we might be capable of taking another life or harming a child links us with the bad people of the world and an innate desire to be ‘good’ forces a natural inclination to shy away from these thoughts before we really know them. This unwillingness to confront these ideas is what creates the ‘shadow’ on the shadow side. “It is, by its name, dark, shadowy, unknown and potentially troubling. It embodies chaos and wildness of character.”8 Having identified this element as evil and having this reinforced to us through popular fairy tales and adventure stories as children and in science fiction and movies as we grow, the instinctual reaction is to bury it before it becomes harmful or continue to project it onto others. It is this projection onto others that we have been taught since early childhood and begin to identify as simply ‘the other’. Through this process, anything strange, unusual or just different from ourselves becomes suspect and potentially dangerous. In our fear of and refusal to confront this darkness within and without, we cut ourselves off from a large element of ourselves and thus allow a great portion of who we are to remain unknown to us. “A powerful goal that some undertake is to re-integrate the shadow, the dark side, and the light of the ‘real’ self. If this can be done effectively, then we can become ‘whole’ once again, bringing together that which was once split from us.”9 This begins to suggest the peculiar way of looking at darkness that both Shelley and Conrad were attempting to demonstrate in their work. It is the concept of how to attain true enlightenment. Enlightenment is perhaps best understood through the teachings of Eastern religions and philosophies because of their long practice of providing visual metaphors and their focus upon wholeness. The concept of Daoism, for example, is focused upon the constant interplay between polar opposites as they define and shape each other.10 This implies a position in the here and now rather than fixating on the events of the past or the promises of the future. A popular symbol of Daoism even in the Western culture is the Yin Yang, a circle divided by a curving line in which contrasting colors are used to indicate a light and a dark side. Within the light side is a small dot of the dark color while a similar dot of the light color rests in a similar spot in the dark side. The overall effect seems like two abstract fish swimming tightly against each other with heads touching the tailfins of the other. The focus of the Yin Yang is on balancing the Yin and Yang to bring harmony to the system. In this system, Yin represents water, quiet, substance and night, while Yang represents fire, noise, function and day. As can be assessed through these descriptions, these two entities are polar opposites. This means that in order to have one, you must have the other – in order to comprehend light, you must comprehend dark. But these definitions are misleading because they suggest an absolute measure. “Yin and Yang create each other, define each other, control each other, and transform each other. They are not absolute, but relative concepts. Each yin or yang can continually be further subdivided into yin and yang.”11 This is the basic principle upon which the Dao is based, that everything is, at one and the same time, itself and its opposite, separate but combined, mutually exclusive wholes. To deny half of this whole, the dark half, is to deny the self and to block any chance at achieving enlightenment. “It is said that ‘both birth and death are the ways of Dao. Heaven and Earth are exploited by the myriad beings; the myriad beings are exploited by human beings and human beings are exploited by the myriad beings. If the three forms of exploitation are in harmony, the three types of beings (Heaven and Earth, human beings and the myriad beings) will be in peace’.”12 This suggests the importance of the give and take relationship between the self and nature, nature and the self and begins to suggest the necessity of allowing this same sort of practice to occur between the light and the dark side of self. Within the Dao, enlightenment is the goal of every practitioner. Enlightenment is achieved when one finds connection with the truly natural state and the connection that ran through all things, at once separate but inseparable, defined yet undefinable, light and shadow, positive and negative, creative and destructive. The key to this practice was opening up to the flow of energy that provided this connection. Part of the fear behind allowing oneself to connect with the shadow side is a fear that the shadow side is as evil and corrupt as those individuals who have come to stand as the embodiment of the Shadow Archetype – the child molesters, the butcher murderers, etc. However, to be aware of the ‘evil’ within is not necessarily to act on it and may reveal something much different from what one expects to find. Like the child who discovers the monster in the closet is really just a pile of blankets and a stuffed animal, the willingness to take a closer look is the first step to understanding. Coming to know the shadow self then helps to build one’s sense of self more completely, more confidently and more productively. In addition, knowing that the capacity is there doesn’t necessarily mean acting upon it. Robert Walton and the narrator of The Heart of Darkness do not give in to the darkness within themselves despite their recognition of it. Instead, they are provided with new insights into the world around them, the motivations of their actions and the deeper possibilities within their souls. They learn their weaknesses and return to the previously familiar world changed men, incapable of understanding how they could have been so blind before. One final concept regarding the nature of darkness must be understood before it can be applied to the ideas in Shelley and Conrad’s books. This is the concept of darkness as it applies to the figure of the ‘other’. Edward Said perhaps provided our first well-defined idea of what is meant by the ‘other’ in his work Orientalism.13 In this book, which is primarily an argument illustrating the various ways in which the dominant European culture has attempted to define and constrain the ‘Oriental’ people, of which there are numerous cultures implied and no single country or region, as necessarily inferior. He indicates the body of literature regarding Orientalism seemed to have sprung from the British and French quarters and these countries’ well-documented domination of the trade through more than 1000 years of history, with the exception of America, which has stepped in where the other countries left off. This idea is supported by Ziauddin Sardar in his book, also entitled Orientalism. “It was in its encounter with Islam that the West first developed its vision of the Orient as an unfathomable, exotic and erotic place where mysteries dwell and cruel and barbaric scenes are staged.”14 The concept of the ‘other’ is thus applied universally to anyone of darker skin, darker (meaning less known) origins and darker (meaning of alternate faith) religions. Our ideas of ‘darker equals evil’ thus become transferred onto anyone or anything who seems different or unusual, such as the monster built by Frankenstein or the dark mystery of an unexplored jungle. Points to be Discussed Traditional views of darkness Archetypes Fairy tales (outright portrayals) Nature of enlightenment Eastern philosophy Christian tradition Frankenstein Physical darkness Intellectual darkness Emotional darkness Heart of Darkness Physical darkness Intellectual darkness Emotional darkness Enlightenment Frankenstein Heart of Darkness Bibliography Books Boeree, C. George. “Carl Jung.” Personality Theories. Shippensburg, PA: Shippensburg University, 2006. Frye, N. The Archetypes of Literature cited in Leitch, Vincent B. (Ed.) The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. New York: Norton, 2001. Oriental View of Health, The. Toronto: Shiatsu School of Canada, 1996. Page, Steve. The Shadow and the Counsellor: Working with Darker Aspects of the Person, Role and Profession. London: Routledge, 1999. Said, Edward. Orientalism. New York: Vintage Books, 1979. Sardar, Ziauddin. Orientalism. Buckingham: Open University Press, 1999. Periodicals Calame, C. ‘Mythe et ‘rite’ en Grèce: Des catégories indigènes?’ Kernos. 1991: 179-204. Electronic Sources Bixler-Thomas, Gail. “Understanding Dreams.” On Dreaming. (November 1998). [February 3, 2008] “Jung’s Archetypes.” Changing Minds. (2002). [February 3, 2008] Xia, Chen. “Daoism and Environment Protection.” Sichuan University: Institute of Religious Studies, 2003. [February 3, 2008] Read More